{"id":3266,"date":"2014-07-05T20:49:55","date_gmt":"2014-07-05T19:49:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/?p=3266"},"modified":"2026-05-23T08:28:56","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T07:28:56","slug":"the-perfectly-picturesque-picos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/2014\/07\/05\/the-perfectly-picturesque-picos\/","title":{"rendered":"The Perfectly Picturesque Picos"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friday started with the internet down, wet rain falling down and a massacre down in the shower cubicle.\u00a0 At 9:30am, as everyone else was collecting their bread from reception, we checked out and set off.\u00a0 We were both apprehensive about riding a cable car and standing in a damp cloud, but as we drove up the road past Espinama and Pido to Fuente De, the clouds lifted, the sun came out and the sky turned blue.\u00a0 We bought return tickets for the Telef\u00e9rico and didn\u2019t have to wait long for the twenty-person cable car to sail through the sky, straight at the cliff face and then gently land in the top station.\u00a0\u00a0 The views of the Picos de Europa from the base station were fantastic and when we reached the top station\u2026\u2026\u2026. well, I\u2019ve run out of superlatives.\u00a0 It was beautiful up there and we could not believe that we had picked a day with such perfect weather to be standing there.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Looking
Looking back down to the bottom of the cable car and Eileen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"One
One happy mountain man<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

There was still snow tucked into corners and quite a bit of it when we reached La Vueltona.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t fancy getting my boots too wet, so we turned back to Horcadina de Covarrobles, the pass at the base of Pe\u00f1a Olvidada which is a magnificent 2,406m high.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Snow
Snow treking at La Vueltona<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"
Snow jumping<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"....and
….and landing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

We thought we could see a man standing on one of the incredibly straight sided peaks and couldn\u2019t work out how he could have got there.\u00a0 I thought about waving to him, but it seemed a rather precarious spot for him to be standing.\u00a0 We decided he must have rock climbed up from the other side and then got the binoculars out.\u00a0 It was not a man, it was a massive Buitre Leonardo, also known as a griffon vulture.\u00a0 They have a wingspan of more than 2.5m and look amazing when they are circling over the mountain tops; they hardly ever flap their wings, they just float and glide and make you wish you too could fly like that.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Buitre
Buitre Leonardo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"The
The Pe\u00f1a Olvidada<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

From Horcadina de Covarrobles we hiked round into the next valley past the Chalet Real and on to Hotel Aliva, a long continual downhill walk.\u00a0 My knees were a bit wobbly by the time we arrived and I was ready to sit down and tuck in to a tasty lunch.\u00a0 Play safe today; just have a cheese and ham sandwich, Laura.\u00a0 It turned out to be a monster; half a baguette with a whole packet of ham and a massive slice of cheese.\u00a0 They are definitely catering to hungry hikers there!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"The
The Sierra de Juan de la Cuadra<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"And
And I’ve already eaten a good chunk of it…..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

We took a bit of a shortcut on the walk back uphill, just to make it steeper, but shorter.\u00a0 We were both puffing at the top, but it really was a beautiful hike, in both directions. The camera never went back in to its case.\u00a0 The only alarming moment was when we disturbed three fluffy horses who charged straight in our direction.\u00a0 Just as I was saying \u201cshould we run right or left\u201d, they ran past us and farted in our general direction!!! Friendly!!!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Phew
Phew, they\u00a0missed us<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"The
The Chalet Real<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Waiting
Waiting for the cable car to take us back down<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

We reckon we walked about 10kms in the four hours we were up there, not huge, but enough for me nowadays and it has to have been in one of the most beautiful parts of Spain.<\/p>\n

The drive back down through Potes and on through Tama, followed the Rio Deva and we continued to follow it almost all the way to the coast.\u00a0 We seemed to dip in and out of Cantabria and Asturias, through the fabulously narrow Desfiladero de la Hermida, another ravine that wiggled its way for 20km, this time through the eastern edge of the Picos Europa.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Driving
Driving through the Desfiladero de la Hermida<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

After our long hike and then a tough drive, Rodney looked pretty tired when we finally checked in to Camping Colombres at Noriega. It’s a really pretty campsite with free wi-fi, new bathrooms and a swimming pool with gorgeous views back towards the scenic Picos.<\/p>\n

It made sense to stay put the next day; the sun was shining, we got the washing done and dried, swam in the pool and gazed at the mountains instead of walking amongst them.\u00a0 We\u2019ll sort out the wi-fi on Monday\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"The
The Cuetos de Juan Toribio<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friday started with the internet down, wet rain falling down and a massacre down in the shower cubicle.\u00a0 At 9:30am, as everyone else was collecting their bread from reception, we checked out and set off.\u00a0 We were both apprehensive about riding a cable car and standing in a damp cloud, but as we drove up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3273,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3266"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8315,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3266\/revisions\/8315"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}